Selective call receivers for displaying or presenting information are well known. As technology advances, the marketplace dictates that more features are to be offered on a selective call receiver. In order to access these features, manufacturers have included an array of switches used singularly or in combination to access a specific feature. To achieve user friendly operation of a selective call receiver, the keystroke operation sequence to access a feature must be kept to a minimum. Because of size constraints, the number of switches on a typical selective call receiver is limited to four. Using four switches as an example, the current technology using single keystroke commands can execute four functions directly from the front panel. If one of the switches is designated as a shift operator, the other three can be multiplexed into addressing six functions from the front panel. More functions can be multiplexed on a doubly or triply shifted level but this presents the need for the casual user who has not memorized the operating sequence to refer to an operating manual. Thus, what is needed is a method utilizing a menu driven interface which provides function access using a minimal number of keystrokes.